Page 35 of The Dark Will Fall (Twilight Lake #5)

Rainn Shallows

He’d barely slept. His joints ached, as if he were made of wood, and Shay hadn’t fared much better.

Rainn debated asking Arden to return to the Dark Sea. Tired of being watched apprehensively by someone who expected him to rescue his mother. But even Rainn had to admit, he was happy the Siren male had stayed.

Shay Mac Eoin made the proclamation. The Nymphs were to leave the shores of the Twilight Lake. Even their chieftain had no idea how long the evacuation would last, but Rainn would have done the same if the Skala Beach had been targeted.

It had taken more time than expected to pack down the tents and to take the necessities, but when the dim light of the morning sun crested over the sky, the Nymph village was empty of all but Shay, Rainn, Arden, and somehow Liam Cruinn--their captive.

They came from the water.

Marching forward, in a line, like waves lapping the shore.

Each body was a different size and shape. Not built for fighting, like soldiers were. Ordinary Fae, women, and younglings.

They shuffled through the water, with the same black tears marking their faces.

Rainn didn’t know why Balor had targeted the village. Perhaps their enemy had realized they were all together, or she was determined to get Liam back. Either way, Rainn had no intention of dying on the shore. He had too much to do. Too much to see.

Rainn swung the heavy sword in his hand, twisting his wrist to warm up the joint as he waited for the gormless attackers to get closer. They moved like a battalion, each footstep in time, unlike the screaming, clawing infected of the sick-tent.

The Nymphs weren’t far enough from their village yet. If Balor’s minions caught their scent, they would catch up quickly. Shay Mac Eoin had warned the strongest Nymphs of the enemy. Those trained in fighting. Some had seen the carnage of the sick-tent, and others didn’t need much persuading.

Rainn had never fought with Liam Cruinn before. Shay argued to give the Undine a sword, but Rainn had been against it.

Maeve hadn’t said much about Liam. Only that he was her step-brother.

They had gone to Cruinn to rescue the male, what seemed like years ago.

Rainn couldn’t pin his finger on it, but Liam Cruinn made him uncomfortable.

The Undine carried something, a burden. Some kind of guilt.

Rainn didn’t know how to deal with Fae like that.

Rainn always spoke his mind, even when it got him in trouble.

“I really don’t like killing the younglings.” Shay’s face crumbled as he spotted a much shorter Fae pulling themselves onto the sand.

“Think of them as short. Instead of young.” Rainn suggested, swinging his sword when an attacker grew close.

“They’re not short or young.” Arden had been silently studying the invaders until that moment. “They’re dead.”

“Dead?” Rainn stabbed his sword through the heart of a rather fat-bodied Fae. Black blood spurted out. His sword wedged between the fae’s ribcage, and Rainn struggled to pull it out, kicking the attacker in the chest to free his weapon.

“That does help, actually.” Shay stepped forward, stabbing his sword down into the throat of one of the Mer pulling themselves onto land. The tide pulled their body back to the lake, leaking black blood into the water.

Shay, Rainn, and Arden hacked their way through the first line of attackers until the water was too black to see the sand. Their bodies did not turn to foam.

Further down the beach, Liam Cruinn let out a rather undignified scream—as one of the black-teared bodies fell on top of him. Clawing and biting for a pound of flesh.

Liam’s sword lay forgotten in the sand.

Arden sighed, springing off the ground, wings snapping open, as he bodyslammed Liam’s attacker, driving his sword through its side and into the water.

Liam Cruinn rolled onto all fours and vomited.

Rainn turned back to the water, just as another line of staggering Fae pulled themselves to the surface.

They kept coming.

Shay clutched his chest, and before Rainn could ask him if he was alright, Rainn felt it too. A warmth that started innocently, before devolving into a painful churning. As if he’d swallowed an electric eel.

He felt her, in the back of his mind.

Rainn hadn’t forgotten what it felt like to be in Maeve’s presence, to feel her inside his blood, his body, and soul—but he’d almost attributed it to a dream. Only now did he know he was awake.

Arden stepped into the water, still fighting, as Rainn and Shay obeyed the screaming in their bones.

“Get out of the water!” Rainn shouted. “Now!”

Arden didn’t run; instead, he took to the air.

The water began to churn, and the waves turned white with the force of the wind.

Some of the stragglers made it to shore, and Rainn quickly dispatched them.

However, when he looked back at the water, the others had been swept away.

A bottomless pit formed in the water, the like of which he had never seen before.

A whirlpool. The tide churned, too quickly, too hungry, to be fought.

If any of them had been in the water, they would have been sucked down as well.

The whirlpool brought the rest of the Fae to the surface, only for a moment, before they were sucked down too in their hundreds. So many.

“What is that?” Liam Cruinn whispered, his face pale with fear.

Rainn hadn’t heard him approach.

Shay jogged to the water’s edge.

Rainn knew what he was waiting for, without needing to ask. He was waiting for the same thing.

The whirlpool became a fountain, gurgling as it digested the bodies. Then the lake was as still as a windless night.

The only evidence of the black-teared attackers was the stains on the sand.

He didn’t dare go into the water. Rainn paced the shore like a pup ready for its first swim, his fists clenching and unclenching repeatedly.

Shay Mac Eoin stood at the shore, unmoving.

He lifted a single finger and pointed to the horizon, the moonlight reflected in his eyes.

Rainn stopped, eying the Nymph. Shay was crying.

Rainn wanted to offer him some comfort, but his curiosity got the better of him, and he followed Shay’s gaze out onto the water.

She appeared, like a goddess, bathed in moonlight. A platinum head of hair, and pearls dotted on her face, reflecting the moon’s glow. A moment later, another familiar face broke the waves. Glaring out at the shore, with a mixture of arrogance and unwavering entitlement.

Cormac Illfinn.

Rainn’s heart leaped in his chest.

Until that moment, he hadn’t realized how absent he had been, his mind and body disconnected entirely.

He’d been broken, but determined to move forward.

He wished he could be angry at Maeve and Cormac for disappearing when he had needed them the most, but he tabled the emotions.

Relief sinking into his bones, like warm water.

Tears glittered on Shay’s face, but a smile broke free. Shay waved his hands, letting out an uncharacteristic shout of joy. Rainn joined him, calling their names every second it took for the two fae to swim to the shore.

He didn’t wait for Maeve to step onto dry land before he scooped her up into his arms, feeling the familiar weight of her settle over their shoulders.

She was alive. She was warm, and she was home.